HUNDREDS of people have been removed from public or private places and detained under the Mental Health Act by police in Surrey during the past three years.

Since the beginning of 2008, more than 1,000 people have been detained under mental health legislation and put either into police custody or taken to one of four hospital units maintained by Surrey and Borders Partnership Foundation Trust (SABP) – the body responsible for the county’s mental health care.

Contradictory data released under the Freedom of Information Act by Surrey Police conflicts with that of SABP, casting doubt over the ability of Surrey Police to record this information properly.

The police figures show that since January 2008, there have only been 334 occasions when Surrey Police has used mental health legislation to take someone to a ‘place of safety’ – this could be a police cell or a hospital unit.

However, according to SABP’s records there have been 1,142 instances when police have used the legislation to hospitalise people between April 2008 to the end of March 2010.

A spokesman for the mental health charity, Mind, said the Surrey figures were ‘worrying’.

She said: “Police cells should only ever be used as a place of safety in very exceptional circumstances and as a last resort. It is clearly unacceptable that so many people experiencing severe mental distress are ending up in police cells, an environment which is completely unsuitable for them and where they are not able to receive the care and support that they need.”

Recently, the NHS Information Centre released figures that showed the number of people being detained under the Mental Heath Act had risen by nearly one-third last year.

Surrey Police said it was not possible to distinguish between how many of those occasions related to section 136 or 135 of the Mental Health Act 1983, nor what numbers had been taken into custody or hospital.

According to advice given by the Home Office in 2008, police stations should be used as a place of safety only in exceptional circumstances.